The two actors attended the event with other cast members and theatre director Yukio Ninagawa (74).

The first play, Madame de Sade, is set in 18th century Paris where six women talk about their encounters with an imprisoned aristocrat, Marquis de Sade, while the second, My Friend Hitler, is based on the historical Night of the Long Knives incident in 1934. Both plays were written by acclaimed Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima, who had even left notes saying he had wanted male actors to play the women in Madame de Sade.

Theatre director Ninagawa had said he had unique and big plans for his actors to try and match Mishima’s dramatic visualization of the shows. Hearing Ninagawa’s plans, Higashiyama said he had a lot to learn in order to fulfill his director’s expectations.

“I was surprised at how much of it expresses Ninagawa-san’s sadistic qualities,” he said.

“If we get through this play, we’ll be pretty amazing don’t you think?,” Ikuta said.

The two actors continued to talk about their own goals for the show.

“I hope [Ikuta and I] can learn a lot. I want to make it a play I’ll never forget, and I hope I can become a better actor,” Higashiyama said.

“This’ll be the first time I cross-dress. But I hope that the people who come to see the show go home thinking I was the most prettiest,” Ikuta said.

“Mishima Double” will start performances in Tokyo from February 2 to March 2 before moving onto Osaka for performances from March 8 to 20. Tickets are set to go on sale from November 27.

While Jun Matsumoto’s (27) Arashi group members have been cleaning, washing, and running around in their Hitachi electronic product commercials, he will get a fluffy co-star in his, reports Oricon yesterday.

Matsumoto has been chosen to advertise Hitachi’s latest room air conditioner, which will go on sale from December.

To date, Hitachi’s commercials have featured Sho Sakurai with vacuum cleaners, Masaki Aiba with washing machines, Kazunari Ninomiya with refrigerators, and Satoshi Ohno with drum type washer and dryers.

Scene from Hitachi commercial (photo thanks to Oricon)

The commercial follows Matsumoto, who finds something moving inside a cardboard box on the way home from his local convenience store in the rain. Reading a message on the box saying, “please look after it”, Matsumoto utters, “want to come (to my place)?”.

After bringing the dog home and drying it with a towel, the white dog lets out a loud roar, prompting Matsumoto to say, “are you a polar bear!?”.